Introduction

Ask any successful business leader what the most critical component of their organization is, and there’s a high chance that you’ll hear the same answer repeated over and over again: people. Every single action an organization makes is driven by people, making efficient employee recruitment a critical prerequisite for success.

For most organizations, however, recruiting the right employees is an ongoing struggle. Employee recruitment seems simple in theory, but most business leaders who have practical experience with it know how challenging it can be to find someone who can fit within the culture and contribute to the organization.

In this article, we share 5 tips for efficient employee recruitment to help you find the people your organization needs to accomplish even the most difficult goals and rise above the competition.

#1 Increase your candidate pool

An Office Vibe report revealed that more than 75 percent of professionals are passive candidates who are open to new opportunities but aren’t currently looking for a new job. Organizations that limit themselves to the candidates who walk in their door or respond to an online ad are very likely missing the best candidates out there because such candidates are already working for someone else.

If you want to improve the efficiency of your employee recruitment, you should start by increasing the size of your candidate pool. Develop relationships with recruiters and university placement offices and keep an eye on websites frequented by professionals in your industry.

LinkedIn and other social media websites are also great places where you can meet passive candidates and convince them to come over for an interview. The most important thing is to build your pool of candidates before you need to hire a new employee so you have plenty of options to choose from.

#2 Establish an employee referral program

Google and many other successful tech giants have built what Google’s hiring chief Laszlo Bock calls “self-replicating hiring machines” in his book entitled “Work Rules!” Essentially, Google has turned every employee into a recruiter by soliciting referrals. What’s more, Google has applied a concept known as “aided recall” to ensure that employees won’t forget to remember any potential job candidate.

“In the context of generating referrals, people tend to have a few people who are top of mind. But they rarely do an exhaustive review of all the people they know … nor do they have perfect knowledge of all the open jobs available,” – Bock writes in his book.

“We increased the volume of referrals by more than one-third by jogging people’s memories just as marketers do. For example, we asked Googlers whom they would recommend for specific roles: ‘Who is the best finance person you ever worked with?’ or ‘Who is the best web app developer in the Ruby programming language?’”

Any organization can establish a similar referral program as Google to gain instant access to a large pool of pre-selected candidates. Referrals can eliminate a lot of the guesswork that’s associated with traditional recruitment because referred candidates typically come with a clear picture of company culture and goals.

#3 Make the most out of your interview process

According to a Leadership IQ study, 46 percent of newly-hired employees fail within 18 months, and it seems that interviewers are largely to blame. “The typical job interview process fixates on ensuring that new hires are technically competent,” explains Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ.

“But coachability, emotional intelligence, motivation, and temperament are much more predictive of a new hires’ success or failure. Do technical skills really matter if the employee isn’t open to improving, alienates their coworkers, lacks emotional intelligence and has the wrong personality for the job?”

There are many interview questions that can help interviewers separate outstanding candidates from those who are merely average, but the individual questions are not nearly as important as the intentions behind them. All interviewers should learn to look beyond initial likeability in search for deeper compatibility. Of course, there’s no point in hiring a candidate who is fundamentally unlikable, but it’s important to keep in mind that stress can play a huge role during a first job interview.

#4 Embrace remote work arrangements

Polling agency Gallup has found that work-from-home opportunities and flexible scheduling play a major role in an employee’s decision to take or leave a job. Millennials in particular want to work from home, and organizations that decide to embrace remote work arrangements can expect to gain access to far more skilled candidates than they could otherwise.

In fact, many professionals would be willing to take a substantial pay cut or sacrifice vacation days just for the opportunity to take on a remote role because they know that such a role would reduce their transportation and day-to-day expenses, improve their personal relationships, have a positive environmental impact, lead to better health, and even increase their productivity.

Small and medium-sized organizations can benefit from remote work arrangements the most by attracting experienced professionals who want a change of pace after many years of 9 to 5.

#5 Use your website for efficient employee recruitment

With unemployment at record lows, candidates do their own research and agree to being interviewed only by organizations that match their values and goals. The best way how you can communicate everything candidates may want to know about you is through your website.

If you allow it to look outdated and sluggish, you can’t reasonably expect to attract many young, energetic candidates who want to work in a dynamic environment. You may even consider developing a hybrid mobile app, but it’s important that you first understand when hybrid mobile app development makes sense and when it doesn’t.

Conclusion

Finding talented employees is no easy task, but there are many ways to create a more efficient employee recruitment process. In this article, we’ve shared 5 powerful tips for efficient employee recruitment that don’t require much effort to implement but are proven to lead to better hires and, consequently, to lower employee turnover, higher job satisfaction, and greater productivity.

Resources

• https://www.officevibe.com/blog/12-recruiting-stats
• https://www.workrules.net/
• http://www.leadershipiq.com/blogs/leadershipiq/35354241-why-new-hires-fail-emotional-intelligence-vs-skills
• http://www.gallup.com/reports/199961/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx
• https://www.outsite.co/blog/pay-cut-remote-work